


One Blue Sky

by bravest_person_in_Wonderland



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Hurt Racetrack Higgins, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, No beta we die like mne, Platonic Cuddling, Protective Jack Kelly, Whump, i really put my boy through it in this one, platonic bedsharing rights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/pseuds/bravest_person_in_Wonderland
Summary: Race whump and hurt/comfort ft. Jack being an anxious protective big brother.
Relationships: Racetrack Higgins & Jack Kelly
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	One Blue Sky

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to another installment of "Lu writing scenes that are set late at night bc she herself never sleeps and she's probably projecting onto her favorite characters" 
> 
> ...apparently I have Race feels, dunno why, I just woke up like this yesterday and I refuse to let fanfic inspiration slip through my fingers, so... apologies to Race, he is baby and doesn't deserve me Putting Him Through It like this. I lowkey feel like I've been making up for missing Whumptober 2020 with the way I've been churning stuff out like this... whoops. maybe I'll try to write something fluffier soon.
> 
> also I suck at endings, so... you've been warned. sorry.

The hacking coughs sent needles of pain through Jack, despite his not being the one doing the coughing. 

Winter had truly set in for New York City. Snow and ice coated the outside world, but it had long since lost its allure. It was dry, crumbling, hard-packed snow that tripped you and made a painful screech when you walked on it. Ice had made it nearly impossible for Crutchie to get around, as much as he hated admitting it. And Jack couldn't stay up on his penthouse for fear of freezing to death, which for once wasn't even an exaggeration. 

They'd just been having some fun, making good of what little free time they had and attempting to make the best of the biting climate. Jack had been out on the lake ice at least five times since it had frozen over, had taken Davey and Les across it as a shortcut a handful of times. When it got even colder, he and a handful of the boys figured there was no way it _wasn't_ thick enough to play on, and they bundled up in as much clothing as they had and went to play on the frozen lake. 

Needless to say, it had gone all wrong. Jack could only be grateful all the boys hadn't been there, because if the collective weight of himself and a small handful of his kids was too much... it could have been a lot worse if the whole gang had been out there. As it was, Race had been the one to actually go through, just as he completed some cartwheel or something. The ice had cracked as he flipped upside down and he didn't even have time to flinch or yell before he plunged into the freezing water headfirst. 

Albert probably would have tried to jump in after him, but Jack grabbed his arm and held him tight. Smalls, being the lightest one there, shimmied on her stomach to the edge of the broken ice and a scarf tied around one ankle so they could pull her back. They expected Race to bob back to the surface, probably chattering a string of expletives, after just a moment, but he didn't. Jack subconsciously counted the seconds, breathing out an uncharacteristic prayer of relief when after exactly thirty seconds, Race's flailing hands appeared, shortly followed by a head of plastered-down blond curls. 

Smalls wasted no time in wrapping her arms around him and yelling for Jack and Specs to pull them to solid ground. Race coughed up a few mouthfuls of water, but flippantly waved them off and said he was fine. And Jack, like an idiot, had believed him. Right up until the next evening when Race came back to lodging and started coughing. 

It had been three days since then and Jack could tell that the rest of the newsies were getting nervous. It wasn't like they all hadn't been sick themselves before, but the way Race was curled on his side in bed, clutching at a small pile of blankets that some of the others had offered to share, barely able to go two minutes without sounding like he was about to hack up a lung... that was scary, even to Jack. 

He had hated leaving that morning, even knowing that Crutchie was staying behind to keep an eye on Racer. Katherine was out of town with her family, or he'd have already swallowed his pride and gone to her for help, some kind of medicine, anything. He thought sarcastically of how _convenient_ it was that Medda was upstate for business at the exact same time. As it was now, he was lying in bed, listening to one of his kids struggle even to breathe properly, and it _hurt_ to recognize his helplessness. 

"Jack?" 

"Yeah, Racer?" Jack whispered back. 

"I'm cold," came the almost apologetic voice before Race coughed again. They'd already given him as many of the thin coverings as they could spare, given the weather. 

Jack chewed at a cracking spot on his lower lip, thinking, before he swung his legs out of bed and stood up, grabbing his own blanket as he went. 

"A'ight, Racer," he muttered, "Move over." 

Race's big blue eyes stared up at him in the darkness and he raised one eyebrow in surprise, but he did as instructed and let Jack slip into bed with him. By the time they were situated in a shockingly comfortable fashion for it being such a small bed, Jack was half propped up against the bunk's framing with a pillow behind his head. Race had, after a moment of hesitation on account of his pride, cozied up against Jack, throwing one arm around him as Jack pulled the small pile of thin blankets farther over them. 

Jack almost thought they'd fall asleep together peacefully, and was nearly drifting off when Race started coughing again. The spasms wracked his entire frame, and he curled into Jack's chest like he used to when he was younger and scared. When he managed to suck in a breath again, he gave a low, quiet groan. 

"It hurts," he mumbled. "Breathin'." 

"I know," Jack whispered into his hair, his eyes squeezed shut and an _oh, God..._ forming in his mind, more prayer than expletive because he couldn't stand seeing Race like this. "I know, Racer. You'll be okay." 

"You say that..." Even whispered, Race's tone was teasing, a bit antagonistic. Jack was a bit amazed by how he could switch from raw vulnerability to sarcasm in a split second, but on the other hand he knew a lot about defense mechanisms and that was definitely an option. 

"Yeah, and I mean it." Jack smirked, even knowing that the other boy wouldn't see it. "I'm not gonna let anythin' happen to ya, promise." Something twinged in him as he said those words, knowing that he had just made a promise that he had no idea if he could keep or not. 

"I ain't a kid no more," Race said after he cleared his throat with a very tentative, cautious small cough. "You can't say stuff like that. We both know you don't control much of anything." 

Jack quietly scoffed. "Well now I'm just offended," he deadpanned, then softened again. "I know you know that. But you're-" he broke off. "I gotta say _somethin'_ and try to live up to it, 'cause otherwise what good am I doin'? You're my kid, I gotta try and..." he trailed off, unsure of where he was going with this, and shrugged with one shoulder. 

"Ya gotta try an' comfort me, or somethin'?" 

"Yeah," Jack replied, then after a slight pause he added more quietly, "'Cause I love ya." 

Race was silent for so long that Jack wondered if he'd fallen asleep. The only sound was his faintly wheezing breaths and a slight creak from a bed across the room as someone shifted position. After a while though, he spoke again. Or, tried to at least. 

He managed about a syllable and a half of what sounded to Jack like an awkward and vaguely self-conscious _thank you_ or something of that nature before another wave of desperate coughs hit him. Again, Jack's arms stayed around him as he struggled for a real breath. The fit lasted longer than the previous, Race shaking and gasping with his forehead pressed against Jack's chest, seeking comfort like it was the air he was lacking. 

Jack's heart broke when the coughing fit finally ended and Race laid weakly in his arms, trembling and wheezing as deep of breaths as he could manage. He was Jack's second, the one set to take over the borough if anything happened to Jack, but right now he seemed so small and vulnerable and it was tearing Jack apart. He hated this, hated that Race could be dying in his arms for all he knew because he couldn't freaking figure out how to help or who to turn to. He hated being helpless. 

"Go to sleep," he murmured into Race's hair, and this time he did. It was only after he was sure the younger boy was really asleep that he pressed his lips to Race's temple and whispered another _I love you._

Jack wasn't usually so emotional, he wasn't usually this overtly tender, or affectionate. It just wasn't his way. He tended to be more guarded and awkward in his displays of affection. But both fear and love can change the way people act and break down boundaries that would normally remain up, and he was feeling both of those things that night. And so, curled in a too-small bed with one of his little brothers wrapped around him like he was a lifeline, Jack slipped into a somewhat tense sleep. 

The morning came with more warmth than they had felt in nearly two weeks and was met with rejoicing for even this small reprieve. Nobody said a word about Jack being curled up in Race's bed instead of his own. They all understood. 

If Jack thought it had been hard to leave Race the day prior, it was ten times as bad after last night. There was a large part of him that just wanted to stay, but he knew he couldn't. Everybody took more papes that day, hawking like there was no tomorrow, and by the end of the day they had pooled enough extra money to buy a bottle of medicine. 

It was nearly another two weeks before Race was up to going out and selling again, but Jack just thanked God that he was alright. The memory remained, however, of that night when he laid curled in Jack's arms as he struggled to breathe. And none of them ever went on a frozen lake again, however solid it looked.

**Author's Note:**

> me: ok I probably made it clear enough that Jack thinks of the newsies and especially Race and Crutchie as "his kids"  
> me @ me: bUT DID YOU THOUGH-
> 
> comments and kudos give me much happiness, if you wanna yell at me for the whump or whatever feel free bc I will absolutely yell at myself along with you. XD
> 
> title is from [this song](https://open.spotify.com/track/4K22eufv1imB1pNbjZamJT?si=pDV8SRWLQ8OukaSxs4rUlw) :)


End file.
